With a name deserviing of fine sports cars, Sprint is entering the LG Viper smartphone into their world of 4G. It is not only designed to be a forerunner, but a "green" friendly smartphone as well. The handset is a regular good looking piece of mobile craftsmanship with the traditional "slab" design dominated by the display.

This year seems to be the year that 4G takes over and Sprint is on top of things with their LG Viper. This smartphone is not going to win awards for the most powerful or the best looking, but it will do for most users. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is going to be released alongside this smartphone. The basics are all here with the Viper. It is sporting a dual core processor and a camera with fundamental features. There is no manual keyboard included for the Viper, so all typing and messaging is going to be done with the virtual keyboard.

As new as the LG Viper is, and as old as Android 2.3 is, a person could easily think that the Viper would come with the latest version of the Google mobile operating system. Not so. Gingerbread is still what is going to come loaded on this handset. Look for the Ice Cream Sandwich perhaps in the near future for this LTE smartphone. The smart user will be getting a smartphone with the "Lookout Mobile Security" app installed. Android is famous for its frequent malware attacks that can steal a user's personal information. Sprint has already made it public that they are not going to be installing the "Carrier IQ" rootkit into Android smartphones anymore. The 2.3 version of Android is able to handle NFC ( Near Field Communication ) payments, and the LG Viper has the needed RFID chip installed to use this feature.

Taking a look at the display of the LG Viper, we find typical specifications. The clarity is rated at 233 pixels per inch ( PPI ), which is no where near an iPhone's 326 PPI. The smartphone has four inches of digital real estate to play around with. Since there is no manual keyboard, power texters will need all the space they can get. The display is crafted of LCD not the newer AMOLED material, so watching the battery meter will be the order of the day.

The exact internal memory space is not yet declared for the LG Viper, but it does have a flash card slot for up to 32 gigabytes of data. The dual core processor is cranking up the speed to 1.2 gigahertz. Wireless connectivity does not include Wi-Fi direct, but the smartphone can act as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Usually a smartphone with Wi-Fi hotspot can feed up to five or so other devices with internet access. Of course, the new 4G capability will come with the LTE radio and should give much better upload and download speeds over the former 3G networks.

The rear camera is a five megapixel picture Snapper and a front camera is included for video chats. Auto focus and geotagging are some of the features of the LG Viper's rear camera. Expect this to come out with recycled materials and in one color; black. It goes up for preorder on April 12 and should be light on the wallet as well.